I found the word ‘misunderestimating’ in the article written by Peter Catapano under the caption 'Don't stop believing' in Opinionator’s Column section of New York Times (April 29).
The word is not entirely unfamiliar to me, because I think I’ve seen it in Sarah Palin’s speech before (if my memory is correct). However, as combination of ‘mis’ and ‘under’-estimate seems to me somewhat redundant, I checked up several English Japanese dictinaries at hand together with Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Cambridge Online Free Dictionary, and found that none of them carries the word, ‘misunderestimate.’
Are ‘misunderestimate’ and ‘misunderestimation’ received English or received American English? – – because, it’s been used by big guns like Sarah Palin and NYT columist.
The word appears in the following ending line of the above article:
“Or what does it say for us? Are we
misreading the man that Spy magazine
famously dubbed the “short-fingered
vulgarian” way back in the 1980s? Are
we misunderestimating the man who
has monopolized an outsized portion of
a vast media space in recent weeks and
forced the hand of the President of
the United States?
Best Answer
Misunderestimate is one the infamous 'Bushisms'. A mangling of the English language by President George Bush. If the italics in the article is original, then they are using the word ironically.